Improvements to Arroyo Seco Pkwy causing a stir

[roadfro]

Came across this article today via the Roadgeek YahooGroup:

Preservationists: Don't change West's 1st freeway

CalTrans has a $17 million project in the works to add concrete barrier walls and lighting to the Arroyo Seco Parkway section of the Pasadena Freeway (SR 110). Preservationists are none too pleased with the improvements, which they characterize with being too modern in character to the historic route. The parkway, the first of its kind in the western US, is considered the precursor to today's modern freeways in California.

[Truvelo]

Looking at it on GSV I think they should spend the money on new pavement. The gaps between the concrete sections look shocking. A direct link to I-210 wouldn't go amiss either.

[J N Winkler]

Neither is going to happen--the Arroyo Seco Parkway (called that at the time of its opening, later renamed as the Pasadena Freeway, and now being changed back to its former name) is a historical artifact.  The pavement is original (and now 70 years old, and so in quite good condition considering its age).  Repaving and establishing a direct connection to I-210 would ruin its historical character.  It sounds like Caltrans is already doing too much by removing the 1940's curbs with embedded triple reflectors.

BTW, I think this is also the contract which--ironically--reinstates the "Arroyo Seco Parkway" label by replacing the existing button-copy signing (which is not original to 1940) with new signs using retroreflective sheeting.

[agentsteel53]

BTW, I think this is also the contract which--ironically--reinstates the "Arroyo Seco Parkway" label by replacing the existing button-copy signing (which is not original to 1940) with new signs using retroreflective sheeting.

most of the classic button copy dates to the 1962 refurbishment of the freeway.  I wonder if the original overhead gantries were white with black legend, or black with white.  Probably white with black, as Cal Div Hwys was using that style as late as 1947.

[hm insulators]

That poor little Pasadena Freeway, er, Arroyo Seco Parkway was never built and never intended to handle the traffic it's forced to today. They should've widened and straightened the dang thing 50 years ago!

They should blow it up and start over, as far as I'm concerned, and forget the "preservationists."

[TheStranger]

That poor little Pasadena Freeway, er, Arroyo Seco Parkway was never built and never intended to handle the traffic it's forced to today. They should've widened and straightened the dang thing 50 years ago!

They should blow it up and start over, as far as I'm concerned, and forget the "preservationists."

I do wonder if I-710 being built (some time in the next century) will ease the burden at some point on the old parkway...

[roadfro]

That poor little Pasadena Freeway, er, Arroyo Seco Parkway was never built and never intended to handle the traffic it's forced to today. They should've widened and straightened the dang thing 50 years ago!

They should blow it up and start over, as far as I'm concerned, and forget the "preservationists."

The Arroyo Seco Parkway is a national historic civil engineering landmark. I doubt it's getting any major upgrades or reconstructions/realignments anytime soon.

[Chris]

So, because it is a landmark, it is accepted to have third world pavement quality?

[J N Winkler]

So, because it is a landmark, it is accepted to have third world pavement quality?

"Third world" is harsh.  It does have better pavement quality than found in, say, Mexico, partly because it is not open to truck travel.  The pavement is part of the historical character of the road, and replacing it would not solve the major problems with the road, which involve limited visibility at interchanges, and are themselves also part of the historical character of the road.  Because it runs right next to its namesake arroyo and does not have a direct connection to I-210 on either end, it would be expensive and poor value for money both to upgrade it to modern standards and to make the other improvements required to avoid bottlenecking at either end.  So it remains as a historical artifact.

[national highway 1]

Why is the name 'Pasadena Fwy' added to the Arroyo Seco Pkwy?

[TheStranger]

Why is the name 'Pasadena Fwy' added to the Arroyo Seco Pkwy?

The name was added in 1954 when that route (then US 66 and part of US 6) was connected to the rest of the freeway network at the Four-Level Interchange:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasadena_Freeway

This was around the same year that today's I-10 east of downtown was renamed from the "Ramona Parkway" to today's San Bernardino Freeway - at the time, geographic destination freeway names were becoming more common, as opposed to naming the freeway for either a nearby parallel street, or the geographic feature in which the route runs in.